Battlefield 2 Issues... 9800Pro > 6600GT???

[McDuplo]

Okay, I hate to start a new thread, but I honestly looked over all the stuff I could find here (and elsewhere) on this, and I'm finding some stuff that seems helpful, but just hasn't helped ME specifically. Here's the skinny, I really hope somebody here has some sort of an answer... this is driving me NUTS.

I recently replaced a couple of things in my PC, those being a new PSU (I have a Seasonic 430W now, upgrading from a crappy 300W something or other), recently upgraded to 2 GB (2 x 1GB) GeIL PC 3200 RAM, and also, I took out my Radeon 9800Pro and replaced it with a 6600GT (both iwht 128MB onboard).

So, the problem is, the 6600GT seems to be running WORSE than the 9800Pro. I know, it only has 128 mb of vid memory, and some stuttering at SOME points can be expected, but really... should it run WORSE?

And here's the best part... it's a marked improvement in OTHER things... like FEAR. I can bump up some of the settings in FEAR to high (running at 1024x768) and the framerate is still improved over that of the 9800Pro.

The problem with BF2 is that I'm getting stuttering in certain parts... like in the Oil Cisterns of Daqing Oilfields, in by the flag, when I face the cisterns, and also in other structures. I know there's more textures and whatnot, but AGAIN, the 9800Pro had zero problems with this (I'm running on the same settings... 1024x768, AA and AF are app controled, and are OFF in BF2, and details all at Med or lower, especially for some of the lighting stuff).

Also, re: the RAM, I've tried putting back in my original chips (they were some generic 512 MB PC 3200 stuff) that I had in when I was using the 9800Pro (things were running better with that card and 1 GB of RAM vs the BETTER card and 2 GB of RAM), and it made no difference. HOWEVER, I DID score better in 3DMark by almost 90 points with that old RAM in vs. the new GeIL (and double the amount) RAM. ?????? Anyway...

From what I've read, BF2 ought to be running much better. Here's my system:

ASUS K8V SE Deluxe mobo
Athlon 3400+ @ 2.2 - 2.4 GHz
Seasonic 430W PSU
2 GB GeIL PC 3200 RAM (2 x 1 GB)
200 GB SATA HD
evga 6600GT videocard w/ 128 MB
SB Audigy soundcard

I've also tried cleaning out the cache files from changing the video settings in BF2, I have the latest nVidia drivers, etc etc. I just don't understand how this card can function WORSE, for seemingly ONLY BF2, than the old one. I was figuring it'd work BETTER, seeing as the nVidia logo is on the friggin' BF2 box!!

If ANYONE can help me, and has made it through this long post, I would VERY MUCH appreciate it. THANK YOU!!!!!

[sawyen]

There's a thread by Mutley that sorts out some of the problems with the 6600GT.. not exactly related to your problem, but he did solve some stuttering issues as well if I remember it correctly...

The thread is pretty recent, you could look it up..

[McDuplo]

Yup, I read that thread... it's actually the way I found this site, from googling and it took me right to his. I did the stuff I found in there already, unfortunately, and have had no success...

There's a thread by Mutley that sorts out some of the problems with the 6600GT.. not exactly related to your problem, but he did solve some stuttering issues as well if I remember it correctly...

The thread is pretty recent, you could look it up..

[McDuplo]

Well I see the "write combining" thing he tried... I guess I can try that tonight. The problem is, I'm not having any of those crazy problems he's having... JUST the stuttering, and just in parts you might expect a card to stutter. I wouldn't be so confused if an inferior card hadn't JUST been running these specific parts of the game with far less difficulty. *sigh*

There's a thread by Mutley that sorts out some of the problems with the 6600GT.. not exactly related to your problem, but he did solve some stuttering issues as well if I remember it correctly...

The thread is pretty recent, you could look it up..

[herulach]

A 6600Gt isnt that far superior to a 9800 pro, especially if youhave less texture ram. cant recall if theres a setting for turning down texture detail in BF2, but try it, and if you loose the stuttering then that was the problem.

[jamena]

My suggestion would be to check your motherboard drivers and to make absolutely sure your graphics drivers are cleanly installed (and that the old radeon ones are gone completely)

I say this because I upgraded from an Nvidia fx5600 to an ATI 9800pro and to make the game work right in BF2 I had to remove the nvidia drivers and ATI drivers properly, install the correct motherboard AGP (might apply to PCIe too, I don't know?) in particular the "GART" drivers, and then install the correct ATI driver set. Suddenly everything was smooth and I could ramp BF2 up to 1280 on medium settings (i.e. set to medium, then up the resolution to 1280x960) without any problems... It noticeably improve things in other games too, but BF2 is the biggest complainer when it comes to system resources!!

For reference, my system (over on the left there<--) is quite a bit older/slower than yours, so you should definitely expect more!

[McDuplo]

Maybe not far superior, but superior nonetheless. It has the same amount of RAM on it (both cards had 128). It runs any other games I've tried BETTER. Unfortunately, I'm more addicted to Battlefield 2 than those other games .

A 6600Gt isnt that far superior to a 9800 pro, especially if youhave less texture ram. cant recall if theres a setting for turning down texture detail in BF2, but try it, and if you loose the stuttering then that was the problem.

[McDuplo]

Exactly. I'm quite frustrated. I will check this out as soon as I can this evening. I've never used any sort of registry cleaner for my drivers (and I acknowledge this COULD be the issue!), does anybody have a good link/suggestion to one that is free? Or cheap at least?

Are the "GART" drivers available at the website of my mobo manuf. do you think? I'm definitely not an indepth expert, and the stuff I've tried I have had the good fortune of obtaining good directions on how to do. Thanks for the help thus far, and any future help.

My suggestion would be to check your motherboard drivers and to make absolutely sure your graphics drivers are cleanly installed (and that the old radeon ones are gone completely)

I say this because I upgraded from an Nvidia fx5600 to an ATI 9800pro and to make the game work right in BF2 I had to remove the nvidia drivers and ATI drivers properly, install the correct motherboard AGP (might apply to PCIe too, I don't know?) in particular the "GART" drivers, and then install the correct ATI driver set. Suddenly everything was smooth and I could ramp BF2 up to 1280 on medium settings (i.e. set to medium, then up the resolution to 1280x960) without any problems... It noticeably improve things in other games too, but BF2 is the biggest complainer when it comes to system resources!!

For reference, my system (over on the left there<--) is quite a bit older/slower than yours, so you should definitely expect more!

[herulach]

The k8v has a via chipset right? In which case you want the 4in1s (or whatever they are calling them from the via site.

Driver cleaner will sort out getting rid of everything

[McDuplo]

Ehhhh... I dunno? It sounds kind of familiar, but I'm not sure. I guess I'm not sure what that means. I don't know enough about them to know, sadly. Would the manual tell me? I have that at home...

Re: installing the drivers, do I just install them and they'll overwrite what they need to? Do I take stuff off first, like with a videocard? I've never done any sort of a mobo update...

I'll Google Drive Cleaner. Thanks for that.

The k8v has a via chipset right? In which case you want the 4in1s (or whatever they are calling them from the via site.

Driver cleaner will sort out getting rid of everything

[jamena]

assuming you're on XP ATI have a removal tool... on this page they mention the catalyst removal tool

Can't see anything on the www.nvidia.co.uk site but using add/remove software should do it if the nvidia install doesn't have an unwise.exe remover program built in?

Your motherboard should be supported well...
http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us
there's a via driver download under the list your motherboard...so you could probably use VIA supplied 4in1s? I use default nvidia nforce drivers for my motherboard because the manufacturer (Sparkle) only ever made this one motherboard and there's zero support online for it...

Personally I'd probably just run the driver install and let it do it's thing, see if it helps, but then I do end up "breaking" my pc every now and again! XPpro has proved the most resilient os to my tampering thus far

[McDuplo]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to run Driver Cleaner tonight to see if I can't clean it up better... REinstall the nVidia drivers, and then update the motherboard drivers and BIOS, pretty much anything I can get my hands on.

assuming you're on XP ATI have a removal tool... on this page they mention the catalyst removal tool

Can't see anything on the www.nvidia.co.uk site but using add/remove software should do it if the nvidia install doesn't have an unwise.exe remover program built in?

Your motherboard should be supported well...
http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us
there's a via driver download under the list your motherboard...so you could probably use VIA supplied 4in1s? I use default nvidia nforce drivers for my motherboard because the manufacturer (Sparkle) only ever made this one motherboard and there's zero support online for it...

Personally I'd probably just run the driver install and let it do it's thing, see if it helps, but then I do end up "breaking" my pc every now and again! XPpro has proved the most resilient os to my tampering thus far

[McDuplo]

Just to update, in case anybody cares, I can play FEAR and Doom 3 at MUCH greater quality than I could with my previous videocard... so I don't think the card is the problem. In fact, Doom 3, I can play that on "Ultra Quality" at 1024 x 768.

Still, the ONLY thing I have problems with is Battlefield 2, which running in 1024 x 768 is choppier on Medium across the board than it is with the 9800Pro card. I reinstalled that card to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Nope, I wasn't. Much smoother on those settings. I ran 3DMark03 and 05 also with the 9800Pro in, and as expected, the results were quite a bit lower than with the 6600GT.

I've updated just about everything anybody has suggested, defragged, cleaned out drivers, etc, etc. If anything has any OTHER ideas please let me know. I'm tempted to kill my PC .

[jamena]

um...
I think there are some nvidia drivers provided on the BF2 CD/DVD? Have you tried those? ailing that I suppose it's a 6600gt+BF2 specific problem, possibly to your manufacturers card - have you tried emailing EZ/dice/your-manufacturer about it to see if you can entice an official response?

[McDuplo]

There's drivers on the game disc(s)? I didnt' know about that. I suppose I could check it out... I never saw anything like that when installing, etc.

I noticed that in the nVidia specific control panel there's a slider that goes from "High Performance" to "High Quality" with several steps inbetween. yeah, that made zero difference in anything. Nice.

I guess I can email the manuf's, too. I won't count on any sort of non-scripted response... but hey, they could surprise me!

um...
I think there are some nvidia drivers provided on the BF2 CD/DVD? Have you tried those? ailing that I suppose it's a 6600gt+BF2 specific problem, possibly to your manufacturers card - have you tried emailing EZ/dice/your-manufacturer about it to see if you can entice an official response?

[herulach]

The drivers are a non issue if youre using anything after about 70 odd, what version are you using by the way? i think the latest are about 82.xx